31 Days of Scream-O-Ween! - Dark Angel (AKA I Come in Peace)

Thursday

Oct 17, 2013 at 5:20 PM

By David Massey

I know it’snot my job to convince you that any of the genre films given the ‘Criterion’treatment by Scream Factory’s Blu-ray line are cinema genius or, even, classiccamp but it is a very thin line between ‘Dark Angel’ and films like ‘TheTerminator’ or ‘RoboCop’. That ‘line’, more often than not, comes largely downto budget. ‘Dark Angel’ (or ‘I Come in Peace’ as it will always be to me) is nomore far-fetched in story than the films it aspires to be and manages to makeup for its small budget with enough pyrotechnic absurdity to make Michael Bay blushand one-liners that could give Arnie a run for his money.

Dark Angel

The Film:

‘Dark Angel’follows detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) whose investigation of Houston’sorganized drug smuggling syndicate, ‘The White Boys’ (a tongue-in-cheek troupeof Patrick Bateman clones straight out of 1980’s yuppie culture), is interruptedby an extra-terrestrial drug-harvesting alien and the cosmic cop on his trail. Okay,so, when I put it like that, it does sound more than a bit silly but this isthe stuff of comic books; it’s incredibly violent and could easily accompanyfilms like Spawn, Predator, or Darkman.

The humanoidalien has come to earth to steal heroin which he then injects into his victimsusing a snake-like probe. The drug results in a tidal-wave of endorphins whichthe ghost-eyed E.T. extracts from their brains using a giant spike directly totheir foreheads. Come on, that’s kinda cool... right?

In a timewhen CD’s were a mysterious technology, ironically (*wink wink*), the alien’sprimary weapon is a razor sharp, self-propelled shiny silver disc that is tunedto the electro-magnetic frequency of humans. His back-up weapon is a kick-assgun that fires 3-times the speed of the one used in ‘RoboCop’. That wasliterally the request made of the prop department and achieved to great effect;there are seemingly more explosions than dialogue. I started counting fireballs a few minutes into the film and even before I got to the climax, I lostcount somewhere around 36. You could make an epic drinking game out of this oneand be fall-down drunk half-way through.

For all its hokey,misguided ambitions (and for what it’s worth) this is Lundgren’s best performance.He’s fresh-faced, human, 99% intelligible and, in a sharp about-face to thetough-guy cliché, he collects art, sips Cabernet, and longs for romance. It’s aweird take but they balance it out by giving him one of the cheesiestaction-movie one-liners of all time. Alien Drug Dealer: ‘I come in peace.’Dolph: ‘and you go in pieces, asshole.’ It’s pretty unfor(give)getable.

Apparently,‘Dark Angel’ (the original title) was envisioned as a big-budget blockbuster(aren’t they all) and was written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Death BecomesHer, Spider-Man). If you’ve seen it, you might think me an optimist but thisreally could have gone either way. The fact that it went the way of theforgotten late-night video rental is fitting but there is some really vintagestuff here and it’s never boring.

The Disc:

The coverart is a pretty impressive, photo-realistic painting that’s got some nicesymmetry to it. It’s reversible and you have the option of the less-aestheticvideo cover on the inside with the title ‘”I” Come in Peace’. Shame theycouldn’t have put that title on the better cover. As for the image, it getspretty noisy from time to time. Much of the film takes place at night and, insome scenes, we get sharp blacks while others are grainy as hell.

I was kindof sad that we don’t get an audio commentary with this one but we do get agreat little documentary, ‘A Look Back’. The director, Craig R. Baxley (betterknown for his work as a stunt coordinator), Lundgen, and Brian Benben (‘Deam On’/ ‘Radio Land Murders’) reminisce (a bit apologetically) with some genuinenostalgia for the film. I did notice that some of the interviews were actuallyrepeated within the same documentary – someone wasn’t paying attention – but,on the whole, it’s a good watch.

Gore Factor: C / They didn’t go allout with this one but there’s lots of spikes to the heads.

Repeat view-ability: B / For a12-year-old boy, this is better than Predator!

Add Dark Angel to your collection, click HERE!

Check out yesterday's Scream Factory review, Prince of Darkness!

By David Massey

I know it’s
not my job to convince you that any of the genre films given the ‘Criterion’
treatment by Scream Factory’s Blu-ray line are cinema genius or, even, classic
camp but it is a very thin line between ‘Dark Angel’ and films like ‘The
Terminator’ or ‘RoboCop’. That ‘line’, more often than not, comes largely down
to budget. ‘Dark Angel’ (or ‘I Come in Peace’ as it will always be to me) is no
more far-fetched in story than the films it aspires to be and manages to make
up for its small budget with enough pyrotechnic absurdity to make Michael Bay blush
and one-liners that could give Arnie a run for his money.

Dark Angel
The Film:
‘Dark Angel’
follows detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) whose investigation of Houston’s
organized drug smuggling syndicate, ‘The White Boys’ (a tongue-in-cheek troupe
of Patrick Bateman clones straight out of 1980’s yuppie culture), is interrupted
by an extra-terrestrial drug-harvesting alien and the cosmic cop on his trail. Okay,
so, when I put it like that, it does sound more than a bit silly but this is
the stuff of comic books; it’s incredibly violent and could easily accompany
films like Spawn, Predator, or Darkman.
The humanoid
alien has come to earth to steal heroin which he then injects into his victims
using a snake-like probe. The drug results in a tidal-wave of endorphins which
the ghost-eyed E.T. extracts from their brains using a giant spike directly to
their foreheads. Come on, that’s kinda cool... right?
In a time
when CD’s were a mysterious technology, ironically (*wink wink*), the alien’s
primary weapon is a razor sharp, self-propelled shiny silver disc that is tuned
to the electro-magnetic frequency of humans. His back-up weapon is a kick-ass
gun that fires 3-times the speed of the one used in ‘RoboCop’. That was
literally the request made of the prop department and achieved to great effect;
there are seemingly more explosions than dialogue. I started counting fire
balls a few minutes into the film and even before I got to the climax, I lost
count somewhere around 36. You could make an epic drinking game out of this one
and be fall-down drunk half-way through.

For all its hokey,
misguided ambitions (and for what it’s worth) this is Lundgren’s best performance.
He’s fresh-faced, human, 99% intelligible and, in a sharp about-face to the
tough-guy cliché, he collects art, sips Cabernet, and longs for romance. It’s a
weird take but they balance it out by giving him one of the cheesiest
action-movie one-liners of all time. Alien Drug Dealer: ‘I come in peace.’
Dolph: ‘and you go in pieces, asshole.’ It’s pretty unfor(give)getable.
Apparently,
‘Dark Angel’ (the original title) was envisioned as a big-budget blockbuster
(aren’t they all) and was written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Death Becomes
Her, Spider-Man). If you’ve seen it, you might think me an optimist but this
really could have gone either way. The fact that it went the way of the
forgotten late-night video rental is fitting but there is some really vintage
stuff here and it’s never boring.

The Disc:
The cover
art is a pretty impressive, photo-realistic painting that’s got some nice
symmetry to it. It’s reversible and you have the option of the less-aesthetic
video cover on the inside with the title ‘”I” Come in Peace’. Shame they
couldn’t have put that title on the better cover. As for the image, it gets
pretty noisy from time to time. Much of the film takes place at night and, in
some scenes, we get sharp blacks while others are grainy as hell.

I was kind
of sad that we don’t get an audio commentary with this one but we do get a
great little documentary, ‘A Look Back’. The director, Craig R. Baxley (better
known for his work as a stunt coordinator), Lundgen, and Brian Benben (‘Deam On’
/ ‘Radio Land Murders’) reminisce (a bit apologetically) with some genuine
nostalgia for the film. I did notice that some of the interviews were actually
repeated within the same documentary – someone wasn’t paying attention – but,
on the whole, it’s a good watch.

Final
Grades:
Story: A / In different hands and with
a better budget, this could have been a genre classic.
Presentation quality: B / The film is
grainy from time to time.
Scare factor: D / It’s not really a
horror movie but plenty of violence and imposing white-eyed aliens.
Gore Factor: C / They didn’t go all
out with this one but there’s lots of spikes to the heads.
Repeat view-ability: B / For a
12-year-old boy, this is better than Predator!
Add Dark Angel to your collection, click HERE!

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